Tips on finding chord grips from sheet music?

**Jazzpunk** · 07-27-2011, 04:45 PM

Trying to ween myself off of my tab dependency, especially when it comes to chords. I just got the Barry Galbraith book on guitar comping and am wondering what the best method is to accurately translate the sheet music to the correct position on the neck.

Any tips?

**JohnW400** · 07-27-2011, 04:53 PM

Does he at least put roman numerals or some sort of position identifier in the music like what string the top note appears on? I checked it out on amazon but the Look in side option wasn't available.

As far as figuring out where on the neck without some sort of guide it would be trial and error.

**Jazzpunk** · 07-27-2011, 05:14 PM

There are some numbers with circles around them above the staff line (position?) but I am not sure where they correspond to on the neck exactly. There are also numbers right next to notes on the staff which I am assuming are fingering recommendations.

**Bill C** · 07-27-2011, 05:25 PM

The circled numbers indicate the top string to use until you hit another circled number. This system pretty much determines the chord "shape" if not the exact fingering - eg the first chord in the "Rhythm 1" study - Bb major seventh with Bb F A D (D being the top note) has to to be your standard strings 2 to 5 major 7th "grip".

The occasional numbers next to the notes on the staff are suggested fingerings as you said.

Good luck - this book is a goldmine imo

**Jazzpunk** · 07-27-2011, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Bill C

The circled numbers indicate the top string to use until you hit another circled number. This system pretty much determines the chord "shape" if not the exact fingering - eg the first chord in the "Rhythm 1" study - Bb major seventh with Bb F A D (D being the top note) has to to be your standard strings 2 to 5 major 7th "grip".

The occasional numbers next to the notes on the staff are suggested fingerings as you said.

Good luck - this book is a goldmine imo

Excellent, thanks Bill!

**JorisFun** · 09-01-2011, 01:47 AM

Great question Jazzpunk. I had that same question and it took me some surfing to figure out what these circled numbers ment. Remains the question: how do you quickly 'recognize' a chord reading notes? Does one memorize the shape or do you instantly read the notes and find them on the neck. The last methode seems to time-consuming to me.

**monk** · 09-01-2011, 02:31 AM

Originally Posted by JorisFun

Remains the question: how do you quickly 'recognize' a chord reading notes? Does one memorize the shape or do you instantly read the notes and find them on the neck. The last methode seems to time-consuming to me.

As your note reading skills improve, your ability to recognize common chord grips written in standard notation will become less time consuming.

At first you may have to piece the chord together one note at a time but with practice you'll be able to look at a stack of notes and recognize the chord as easily as if you were looking at a chord diagram.

**cosmic gumbo** · 09-01-2011, 11:00 AM

Has anyone really encountered guitar charts that make regular use of musically notated chords? It doesn't really seem like it would be a much used skill in real life guitar sight reading, unless you had to constantly use piano charts. Am I being naive?

**JorisFun** · 09-01-2011, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by monk

As your note reading skills improve, your ability to recognize common chord grips written in standard notation will become less time consuming.

At first you may have to piece the chord together one note at a time but with practice you'll be able to look at a stack of notes and recognize the chord as easily as if you were looking at a chord diagram.

Thanks, Monk that is a comforting idea!

@ Cosmic Gumbo, no your not naive. I had never encountered this kind of notation before until had to read big band arrangements. (luckily those horn were blowing so hard, no one noticed that I missed a few notes). And the much praised Galbraid book uses this kind of notation too.

Cheers, Joris

**Jake Hanlon** · 09-01-2011, 11:10 AM

I'm not sure I %100 understand the question. Are you saying that you need the tabs for the voicings themselves, or to find the proper root for the chord you're trying to play?

If so, and you don't have your drop 2 and drop 3 chord voicings together with all the qualities with extensions on your dominant chords then that's what you ought to be working very hard on. Get your root and 2nd inversions happening first then 1st and 3rd inversions (or work them all at the same time) and you shouldn't really have much trouble after that.

I get my students to work out comping patterns for voicings much like how people learn licks to play over ii V Is. If you can work out a few dozen ways of getting around basic progressions like a ii V or what not then reading chords from a chart no longer becomes difficult when you're playing functional harmonic progressions.

OR i didn't understand the question.

been known to happen.

**matt.guitarteacher** · 09-01-2011, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

Has anyone really encountered guitar charts that make regular use of musically notated chords? It doesn't really seem like it would be a much used skill in real life guitar sight reading, unless you had to constantly use piano charts. Am I being naive?

He's talking about reading an exact comping arrangement out of a guitar instructional book, not just comping to a chart. Most newer books like this use tab or chord grids. I seem to remember looking through a Joe Pass chord solo book when I was in high school and it was all in standard notation. I closed it and put it back on the shelf. :-)

Like someone else stated earlier, the circled numbers are the highest sounding strings, usually 1 or 2, stack the other notes below on the remaining strings. I don't imagine there will really be any fingering "options" once you figure out what that first string is. There will be one practical fingering. Find the youtube videos of people playing these tunes to give you a point of reference.

Write the fingerings above each first occurrence of the voicings and you'll find that you'll pretty quickly learn to recognize them. Of course, if you really think learning to read it in standard notation is a waste of time, get Aebersold's Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings. I've got both, and it's exactly the same type of product (minus the bass lines and Gailbraith authorship) but has the chord grids written above the notation.

Of course, a host of old jazz guitar instructors are rolling over in their graves at my even typing that. :-)

Amazon.com: Vol. 54 Maiden Voyage Guitar Voicings (9781562240882): Mike Diliddo: Books

**brad4d8** · 09-01-2011, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by Bill C

The circled numbers indicate the top string to use until you hit another circled number. This system pretty much determines the chord "shape" if not the exact fingering

This sounds very similar to the standard use of circled numbers in classical notation. Is it basically the same or am I misreading your explanation? I've occasionally run across jazz methods/arrangements that use numbers differently than classical and find them confusing-I guess 20+ years of classical playing will do that.

Brad

**Jazzpunk** · 09-03-2011, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Jake Hanlon

I'm not sure I %100 understand the question. Are you saying that you need the tabs for the voicings themselves, or to find the proper root for the chord you're trying to play?

If so, and you don't have your drop 2 and drop 3 chord voicings together with all the qualities with extensions on your dominant chords then that's what you ought to be working very hard on. Get your root and 2nd inversions happening first then 1st and 3rd inversions (or work them all at the same time) and you shouldn't really have much trouble after that.

I get my students to work out comping patterns for voicings much like how people learn licks to play over ii V Is. If you can work out a few dozen ways of getting around basic progressions like a ii V or what not then reading chords from a chart no longer becomes difficult when you're playing functional harmonic progressions.

OR i didn't understand the question.

been known to happen.

My orginal question was specific to the galbraith book and has been answered in the posts above. I was confused on which positions to play the chords in but I now understand his numeric position references.

Thanks for the insights though. I am working on similar things with Sheryl Bailey right now (along with shells and targeting 3rds and 7ths) so good to hear affirmation that it's a solid approach.

I'm still confused when I see a chord melody transcription in standard notation without position references but I'm sure it will get easier as my reading and knowledge of the fret board improves!

**Shadow of the Sun** · 09-03-2011, 10:04 PM

For finding exact chord shapes, look at the lowest note in the chord and the highest note. Find those on the neck, and then fill in the other voices in between them. This might be difficult if you're working from piano charts, but coz it's for the guitar, this should work.

**JorisFun** · 09-05-2011, 05:38 PM

Thanks shadow of the sun, great advice! It works for me.

**Sandor** · 09-07-2011, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

Has anyone really encountered guitar charts that make regular use of musically notated chords? It doesn't really seem like it would be a much used skill in real life guitar sight reading, unless you had to constantly use piano charts. Am I being naive?

That's what I thought too, but in my jazz band it has started coming up. It was a bit of a panic moment when I got my sheet and every chord was notated exactly. It was an actual guitar part too, not the piano part.